1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a storage cartridge for a long length of plastic sheet tubing for use with a plastic bag-forming apparatus mounted on the rear of a riding lawn mower, or the apparatus may be mounted on a trailer which is connected to the rear of a riding lawn mower. Such plastic bag-forming apparatus has recently been discovered for collecting the grass clippings, and then the bag is sealed and cut loose from the plastic sheet tubing so the bag may be discharged from the apparatus onto the ground.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Before the present invention, the art of grass-catching apparatus used with riding lawn mowers comprised basically one or more hoppers suspended on the rear of a riding lawn mower, where the mower housing is supported under the lawn mower between the front wheels and the rear wheels. This is shown in the Rhodes U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,631, where an outlet chute is shown connected to the mower housing and rising up the side of the tractor to be discharged into the hopper for receiving the grass cuttings. When the hopper becomes full, the operator must stop the tractor, disconnect the mower blades, and remove the plastic bags lining the inside of the hopper or open the hopper so that the grass cuttings may discharge onto the ground. Still, there is a great deal of manual labor involved in collecting the grass cuttings even though using a riding lawn mower.
The first patent teaching the use of a plastic bag-forming apparatus for a riding lawn mower is believed to be the Myers U.S. Pat. No. 3,736,736. This patent describes a riding lawn mower having an attachment on one side for baling the grass clippings in a tubular plastic bag-forming system. Instead of using an outlet chute, the rotary mower has a side discharge feeding into a tubular auger housing, where the auger is driven by a belt drive from the vertical shaft of one of the rotary blades of the mower. This auger housing has perforated walls to allow for the escape of air, so that the air is separated from the grass cuttings. The auger housing feeds the cuttings into a box-like enclosure that serves as a baling attachment in cooperation with the auger housing. This enclosure is split fore-and-aft on a downwardly and outwardly inclined plane to form a top door that is hinged. Within this enclosure is fitted a reel at the discharge end of the auger housing, and this reel is loaded with plastic sheet tubing that is folded and wound on the reel or annular cartridge in such a manner that it feeds in an axial direction over the end of the reel. This Myers Patent speaks of this type of wound tubing as being available and known as "radially wound" tubing. The grass cuttings are fed from the auger housing and loaded into this plastic sheet tubing that is fed off of the reel, and, when the bag is full, the operator dismounts from the tractor and opens the top door of the enclosure and removes the filled bag, and, once the bag is on the ground, the top of the bag is stapled or sealed shut. A stapler is mounted on the rear wall of the enclosure for sealing the plastic sheet tubing at two closely-spaced locations, and the tubing is then cut to permit removal of the filled bag and to prepare the plastic sheet tubing for the next cycle of filling a bag from the auger mechanism.
The Forsgren U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,525 describes a large, heavy-duty forestry truck for use in the sawmill industry, and it includes a motor-driven crane for picking up logs and feeding them into a wood chipper mounted on the truck body. This wood chipper includes a conveying fan, where the chips are discharged into an elongated discharge pipe directed longitudinally of the truck body. This discharge pipe is fitted with a tube-like net made from textile material. The operator ties the end of the net with a rope to seal the net, and the chips are blown into the net until a bag is formed and the net is full. Then, the operator stops the cycle and climbs up on the truck and ties the net with two ropes, and then cuts intermediate these two ropes and the filled net is discharged from the truck. A long length of this tubular net material is stored on the discharge pipe.
The Wickersheim U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,903 describes a fully automatic packing apparatus for bulk goods, such as fruit. There is an inclined filling tube down which the fruit is rolled. This filling tube is elongated and is supplied with a long length of packing material is the form of a continuous supply of netting or mesh-type hose material, which appears to be of the nature of ladies' silk hose. The lower end of the filling tube is fitted with a restraining assembly in the nature of a brake ring that is controlled by means not disclosed from a sealing and severing assembly at one end of the apparatus. There is a movable carriage beneath the filling tube for automatically gathering up the mesh hose into a narrow, compact strand and introducing this hose strand into the sealing and severing assembly.